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Trucks play a vital role in the U.S. economy, transporting good and raw materials locally and across long distances. Unfortunately, they may be susceptible to being involved in an accident or crash due to their large size, longer stopping distance, and the fact they need more space to avoid unplanned circumstances.
It’s impossible to properly calculate the exact percentage of accidents caused by semi-trucks each year. That’s because not all crashes or accidents are reported properly. However, it is possible to derive a fair estimate from the data that is gathered.
Every year, there are roughly six million crashes that occur on U.S. roadways. Crashes involving large trucks account for approximately six to seven percent of those collisions. Here the thing, the semi-truck is not always at fault; in fact, in well over half of the incidents, another vehicle bears more responsibility for the collision. That means semi-trucks are the cause of roughly 2.5 to 3.5 %.
Truck crash statistics show that while incidents can happen for many reasons, there are some common behaviors that increase the risk of being involved in a collision. Bad weather also impacts the probability. Low visibility, snow, ice, and slick roads can impact the responses of a driver. While winter weather can be especially high risk, even conditions such as wind and rain increase the exposure.
Truck statistics show crashes are far more common during daylight hours. This could be explained by drivers’ preference to operate their vehicles during daylight hours, as well as Federal Motor Carrier Safety hour of service regulations mandating driver rest breaks. With more trucks on the road during daylight hours, it is inevitable more crashes will occur at that time.
Here are some really good links to data sources:
The Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) is maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and is a census of fatal crashes involving vehicles traveling on public roadways.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars
The FMCSA Analysis and Information online tool are crash statistics that are summarized for large truck and buses involved in fatal and non-fatal crashes that occurred in the U.S. https://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/CrashStatistics/
The TN Department of Safety website for statistics and research has interactive dashboards, crash data, maps, inspections, and a host of other valuable information.
https://www.tn.gov/safety/stats
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